Newsletter Archives

• Google vs Microsoft: Lessons on a Cloud #Fail

  Posted on March 2, 2011 at 22:47 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  It’s interesting to look at how Google and Microsoft both handled recent failures in the cloud.

  See my InfoWorld Tech Watch blog.

  Other Gmail, Hotmail

• Hotmail #FAIL

  Posted on January 5, 2011 at 23:24 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft lays an egg in the cloud.

  Infoworld Tech Watch.

  Microsoft News Hotmail, SQL Server

• If you use Hotmail or Messenger, read this

  Posted on July 22, 2010 at 21:18 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  One of the most important privacy articles I’ve ever written just went up on the Windows Secrets newsletter site.

  If you have a Windows Live ID – a Hotmail account, an @live.com or @windowslive.com address – you better take a look. Somebody’s watching. And tattling.

  Windows News Hotmail, tattling, Windows Live Messenger

• Hotmail updates start rolling in

  Posted on June 17, 2010 at 07:17 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  If your mother-in-law calls you in the middle of the night and wonders what in the Blue Blazes you did with her Hotmail program, be of good cheer. For the next two or three months, some people will get the new version of Hotmail every time they log on, while others get stuck with the same-old same-old.

  What? You don’t yet have the new version? You’re left looking like a dodo when somebody asks you a techy question about Hotmail “Wave 4,” and you don’t have any idea how to handle it? Looks like you’ll have to live with it.

  Microsoft has posted several hand-waving overviews and videos of the new Windows Live Hotmail, and reams of detailed analysis. Those don’t help one iota, of course, when Cousin Billy from Dubuque calls because he can’t figure out which button to push. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t have any way for you to raise your hand and volunteer to get in on the latest version.

  You know that Hotmail’s huge: a billion inboxes, three billion messages a day, thousands of servers organized into more than a hundred logical clusters. When Microsoft upgrades Hotmail, it procedes one cluster at a time. (One cluster handles several million users.) Clusters are strictly set up as a load balancing mechanism for Microsoft – there’s no relationship between the age of your account, for example, and which cluster you use. That’s why your CEO might be running the latest version of Hotmail, while you’re still fiddling with the old fuddy duddies. The full rollourt should happen this summer, barring any calamitous problems.

  Opinions about the new version of Hotmail run a dime a dozen, but the people I know who have seen it are somewhat impressed. Easier filtering of “gray mail” that’s unwanted but not really spam. Integrated use of Sky Drive (in some countries anyway), so when your real estate agent sends 50 five-megabyte photos in one message- or even 200 50 MB files – your Internet connection doesn’t fall over and play dead. Conversation view, more-or-less like Gmail. Hooks into Office Web Apps (US, Canada, UK and Ireland only for now). Worthwhile stuff.

  Be forewarned, though, that the new, improved logon sequence immediately dumps you into Microsoft’s new, improved social networking goo. As the Inside Windows Live engineering blog puts it, “The moment you log into the new Hotmail, you can see … new email from friends and contacts, social network updates, shipping notices, appointments, and birthday reminders – along with a conveniently consolidated, privacy-protected stream of photos and updates from your closest friends on Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, and over 70 other websites. The new Home page even lets you post comments directly to some of these sites and update your Facebook status.”

  You’d think MS would let you simply log on and check your mail, but noooooo…

  Windows News Hotmail, Wave 4

• Beware phishers

  Posted on October 7, 2009 at 05:06 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I”m always admonishing people to be careful about phishers, but it looks like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail are getting a particularly nasty dose at the moment. Neowin reports that 20,000 Hotmail users have already given up their userids and passwords. BBC says that they have “seen two lists that detail more than 30,000 names and passwords from e-mail providers, including Yahoo and AOL, which were posted online.”

  It’s always been a problem, but the phishers are getting much more clever these days.

  Of course, you’re savvy enough to pass by those emails that say you underreported your income to the IRS, the ones that say your package couldn’t be delivered because it had the wrong address, and the ones that say you better pay for that new Mac or else…

  I’ve tried clicking through on several of those phish mails as soon as I get them (hey, who can resist running down somebody who says I’m due a tax refund?), and have been pleasantly surprised to discover that Firefox is blocking the sites, just like it should.

  SANS Internet Storm Center recommends that you immediately change your passwords on Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL accounts.

  Other AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, phishing, Yahoo Mail